Jay Chow or Zhou Jie Lun and Nicholas Tse, two well known names in the asia entertainment business. The two paired up together in the latest movie, "The Viral Factor". The movie directed by a well known Hong Kong Director, Dante Lam. His famous work before, Sniper and The Fire of Conscience has led his latest work, "The Viral Factor" to my movies list limelight.
This movie tells the story of brotherhood, greed, love, betrayal, crimes and etc. The movie takes place in Jordan, Columbia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and a few places more. The main reason why I eagerly want to watch this movie was because it was 90% filmed in Malaysia, my country.
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| Jay Chou shooting The Viral Factor. Photo courtesy of Ent.qq.com |
Secondly, of course, the big names for the leads. Jay Chow plays the younger brother of Tse. The action movie started in Jordan. Jon or Fei played by Jay Chow worked in a special police team. His team was supposed to protect a scientist that has developed a mysteriously deadly measles virus from being kidnapped by the people who wanted to use the virus for making money. During the mission, Jon was shot in the head by their team betrayer, Sean (Andy On). Sean was known to be a fast sniper and he also killed Jon's ex-girlfriend, Ice.
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| Sean and Kenner. pic source: www.beyondhollywood.com |
Survived from the deadly shot, Jon had only few weeks to live since the bullet can't be taken out from his head. He will slowly be paralyzed since the bullet is pressing his nerves. Not wanting to waste his time, he head back home, where his mother told the unknown history of his family. His father was a gambler and due to that, she left him with his big brother, Yung, played by Tse. So, Jon decided to find them to bring them back to China. Hence, the actions starts....in Malaysia. Chow took the AirAsia plane back to Malaysia. heheh.. a big sponsor I believe. He met with a scientist in the plane, Dr. Rachel Kan.
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| Pic source :http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/the-viral-factor/6011 |
In Malaysia, Yung was a very well known criminal as he robed the bank and was sentenced to jail for more than 10 years. (they filmed this at the Mahkamah and it was proud to hear the Bahasa Malaysia was recorded in the movie. Tse was also wearing the oranged uniform for prisoners with "lokap polis" written on the uniform.) . He escaped from the police. He then met with the other bad guys who were actually the polices. Yung was instructed to Kidnapped Dr. Kan as she knows how to do the vaccine for the virus. They wanted to spread the virus and sell the vaccine in order to make money.
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| Jay Chow filming in KL. (credits to http://www.vvens.com/?p=3083) |
When Yung wanted to kidnap the Dr. , Jon was there and able to stop the kidnapping. Yung almost killed his brother as both not knowing each other relationship. Yung escaped. Jon then met his father and his niece, Yung's daughter. He then knew that, the kidnapper was his brother.
Yung finally managed to get the virus out of the ACDC lab by using Dr. Kan. Wanting to meet his brother, Jon then caught in the middle of police chase with Yung and was accused of helping his brother escaped. During the same chase, his father died. The chasing part was full of action and running. Full of adrenaline. Yung daughter was also kidnapped by Sean, the betrayer who wants to sell the drug and vaccine. As for trade, Sean wants the virus that Yung have over Yung's daughter. Jon and Yung managed to find Sean's hiding place and wanted so save Champ, Yung's daughter. To escape, Sean threaten Champ's life by injecting the virus at her. Sean escaped and ordered Jon to bring Dr. Kan to produce the vaccine if he wants to her live. Jon was then caught by the police but Yung escaped.
Jon who wants to help his brother and rescue his niece, became the one against the police. He escaped from the jail in the helicopter and shot a fellow police. So, he somehow became a 'criminal'. (the helicopter scene was awesome. the helicopters chasing was low near the ground. KL people were very lucky to watch the scene LIVE!). He then brought Dr. Kan to the ordered place at Golden Triangle. ( Oh, just got to know that the crossroads at Bukit Bintang is known as Golden Triangle). Sean kidnapped Dr. Kan and bring her to the ship where they want her to produce the vaccine. Champ was already badly in shape as the virus has taken action. As the vaccine nearly finished, Sean ordered them to kill Champ. He never wanted to save her at the first place. He just wanted the vaccine. Jon managed to bring Dr. Kan and the vaccine formula out from Sean's . Fighting and gunshots filled the scenes. After a while, there's left only Sean and the two brothers. Since Sean was known as a fast shooter, it was hard for them to kill him. They plan to use one person as bait and one person to shoot him. Jon then run by himself towards Sean, hoping that Yung will be the one to kill him. The plan worked, Jon got shot by Sean and meanwhile, Yung shot Sean.
The next scene was showing, Yung and his daughter went back to China to meet his mom. His mom then asked where his younger brother was but he just kept silent. So, in the end, the younger bro died...
A very heavy story to say. Full of actions and adrenaline. Most scenes made in Malaysia at Cameron Highland, Kota Bharu sea, Putrajaya, International Medical University,around KL - Pavilion, Bukit Bintang, Raja Chulan, Balai Polis, KL sentral, in KTM, Pudu, etc. The scenes were just amazing!! a lot of gunshots, cars getting crashed, accidents, windows crashed, bombs and a lot of running. Seeing Malaysia, the place I know on the screen made me proud. Listening to some Malay conversation made me think " wallawey, the whole world is watching this, man"... every action scene made me amazed. wow, they can do these in Malaysia? During the scene in Putrajaya, Yung and his comrades were driving Proton Perdana. He then drove into a cafe and crashed that building all over. Man, that is wow! but sadly to see, the local guards and police got beaten and shot.
The first chase when the Dr. got kidnapped, the van they drove flew over into a big drain when they were fighting inside in the middle of KL. That scene also awe me. The chasing scene with the police in the middle of Pudu road and Jalan Tun Razak impressed me. I mean, how can they filmed with bombs and gunshots and chasing in the middle of KL busy, jammed raod? I dunno how many cars they used to crashed for the gunshots and hit. but I know, alot. You can see Proton Wira, Kenari, Waja and lot more local cars in the scenes, got bullets flying through and crashed. Maybe these cars are cheap to use, but on the others hand, kinda promoting the local cars. There's on scene, Tse hijacked a Produa Myvi to chase his daughter kidnapper. Myvi kot.. wow! The scene in KTM was also amazing!! The helicopter scene, the driving through Pavilion building and crashing the car from 2nd level to ground, breaking glasses.....No wonder it is expensive. Read somewhere that this movie costs around 20million and RM 70K for the rentals of cars and so on in Malaysia. I mean, seriously, anyone who watched this, won't be bored at all.. Full of actions and amazement!! I just dunno how to describe it in words. You need to watch it yourselves. If you love Hollywood's actions, then, this movie is the right one for you. it is similar to that. I gave 4.8 out of 5 for the actions!!well, can't give full mark, right?.. for the storyline, it was kinda mix and match of different movies and made into a story. I dunno why Dante chooses Malaysia, but thank you so much for it. You have shown that a lot more can be done with actions in Malaysia. Hope the local filmmakers can learn something from this. I am amazed on the capabilities of what Malaysia can provide for awesome movie like this. The viral factor is very infectious.. huhu
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| pic source: www.beyondhollywood.com |
